Jairek: Welcome back to another episode of JRCTV. We have a very special guest who is back. I think she’s our very first special guest who is on a second round of JRCTV. So thank you for holding the first place trophy for someone who gets that spot. We appreciate it! It is Ms. Marie Forleo. So thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us Marie.

Marie: It is my honor to be here with you guys. Hi everybody!

Jairek: And for everyone or anyone I should say who doesn’t quite know who she is, let me give her the proper JRCTV introduction. So this is where I’m going to read your bio and they’re going to know how amazingly cool you are. And then we’re going to tell them some cool, honest facts about you. So I will start. If I went over to her website and I said who is Marie Forleo, it would say that she’s an entrepreneur, a writer, a philanthropist, an unshaken optimist dedicated to helping you – yes you who’s watching this - become the person you want to be. Now some awesome accomplishments: she is the host of the award-winning show Marie TV. Not only that, world-class online training programs B-School and some special new additions to B-School that I’ve just heard about. I’m very excited for you to learn about in here. Not only that, she has a book written in 16 languages – holy mackerel! – around the world and audience in 195 countries. And the beautiful part about this is that she helps people like you watching dream big and back it up with meaningful actions and create results. So Marie, I realize that is the technical introduction.

Marie: yes.

Jairek: let’s tell them who you really are. So that is who you really are but in the grits, in the guts, you’re probably – and I hate to say this, because I have lots of cool friends – but you’re probably one of the coolest kids on the block in my opinion.

Marie: ahhh.. really? I’m also one of the biggest nerds. So thank you! I am a girl from Jersey. I love this world of not only the internet and digital business, but really helping people – and myself, by the way, because I consider myself a life-long learner – just finding the ideas, and the tools, and the strategies that can really help all us create a life that we really want to live. You know? And not everyone has the same definition for success. Some people want to build these huge, outrageous, successful companies. And some people, all they want to do is like their whole focus is their family. And some people it’s their art. Some people it’s their baking or their knitting or whatever. And I love all of those typical. I’m just always on the hunt for what are the strategies and the tools and ideas that can help people unlock that incredible gift they have inside of them, contribute and share with the world, and actually enjoy the process. So I make a lot of mistakes. I definitely do not have it all figured out. I’m always learning but I’m from jersey. And I’m a girl who likes to talk whenever I find something that works or that’s exciting or that I’m like “oh my goodness, this actually produces results”. I feel like I can’t hold it inside. I have to share it with other people. I have to give it away or get other people to give it a try as well. So I think that’s really the core of who I am. And you mentioned it in the bio Jairek. I’m an unshakable optimist. I swear no matter what happens or what’s going on around me, I feel like one of my gifts is that my brain is wired to go “Oh how can we make this work?” It’s like “Ok, what’s the silver lining on this?” And it’s not put on, it’s not you know something like I’m forcing myself. It’s just literally how I’m wired. So I figured well I think that’s an asset and if I can use that with some other people, why not.

Jairek: That’s awesome, I love that! Very very cool. It makes so much sense. Speaking of which, being that internal optimist and being someone who’s believed in what was possible, take us back and connect these two dots. Because we watch you and we’re friends and I watch you online go different places and what’s interesting is in this last year, I saw you cruising down the coast in Italy. Right now, living it up in California near the beach in this beautiful opportunity. And of this place you’re in right now, soaking up some sunshine when other people might be soaking up some snow right now.

Marie: That’s right.

Jairek: And what’s interesting is that this flexibility, this freedom that now exists, wasn’t always there. And I think it came from your vision. And I’d love for everyone to know just really quickly. Where did you start with that vision and what is it now and what are maybe one or two lessons along the way that they might be able to take if they’re just getting started. And they might be sitting in the kitchen table, scratching their head, being like “I hope this turns into something” but they don’t know.

Marie: Yeah. Actually. Great questions. So taking it back, all the way way back, you know when I first got out of school and I was on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, you know I was really excited and grateful to have this steady job and it was a job with a lot of opportunity to start in the financial world. But I just remembered that feeling and I think many people experience this a lot where they may be doing something and they’re earning a living and they put food on the table but a little voice inside of them says “This isn’t what I’m meant to do. There’s something else for me out there. There’s other thing even if I can’t quite articulate it yet, it might not be perfectly clear, it’s just an inkling. But I know that the life I’m living now is not the life I’m meant to live”. And I have that voice kind of perked up over and over again. And it finally got so loud that I actually wound up quitting my job, not knowing what my next step was. But just the pain was so great. I feel like I was dying a slow death day to day going back to the floor of the stock exchange. And I went on an odyssey. And little by little, Jairek, that vision started to come together. And I knew I wanted to somehow make a positive difference to others. I didn’t feel that I was necessarily doing that in my role on the stock exchange. Some other people may find that path but it wasn’t for me. I knew that I wanted to travel. I knew I wanted to engage with people more because I love humans. And so little by little I just started going on this kind of adventure to piece together what I was meant to do. And I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy. It didn’t come together fast. It was painful and I had a lot of nights of doubt. There was a lot of crying. There’s a lot of feeling like a loser. There’s a lot of feeling like I was failing at life in every sense of the word. But still underneath all of it, there was this tiny voice that said “Keep going. Keep going”. And as the pieces started to come together, I started to kind of get my online business - just a baby version of it out there. And I was bartending, waiting tables at night, doing everything I could to keep a roof over my head while I figure out how to build my business during the day. Jairek, we’re taking this back, like I was doing this for 17 years. This is like the late 90s or early 2000s when having a business online was kind of brand new. You know, email marketing was unheard of. And pdf eBooks were like “what’s that? That’s like the newest thing ever!” So back in those days, I realize I really loved having the ability to be in a lot of different places. And I have this vision in my mind, this seed that was planted that said you know what, I want to build a business not where everyone comes to the office everyday in this kind of big glass building. And I was in Manhattan. And I looked at all those and I’ve been in one of those jobs. I worked in publishing. And I’ve been to Conde Nast in the middle of Times Square, we go to the same place every day. And something about that for me didn’t feel true. So that vision started to come to life and I said “I want to build a virtual company that makes a tremendous impact on people’s lives. A positive impact on people’s lives”. But that also roused me to live into this world as the fullest version of myself which is kind of a free-spirit. I don’t like being tied down. I like going all over the place. I like having the ability to be flexible and fluid. And then fast forward a few years, I met Josh, who we’re actually about to celebrate our 14th year anniversary.

Jairek: Congratulations!

Marie: Thank you. And he is an actor. When we met, he was acting. I remember there were times when he would say “hey I’m going to film in Louisiana, you should come with me and do all your work from there”. And at that time, I was still waiting tables. And even though I had my small coaching practice, I was also teaching fitness and teaching hip-hop and I was landlocked. So that really was an incentive, that was a reason for me – we’re talking about what are some of the lessons along the way. I have the vision of having a completely kind of flexible, fluid, location-free life. But it wasn’t honestly until I met him and our love was so great that I was like “I need to make this happen fast because I want to be with that man and we love each other. He keeps inviting me on all those wonderful things and I have to say no because I can’t go anywhere”. So I think one of the lessons is not only is it important to have the vision of what you want, but you really do need to back it up with some emotional whys. Some really powerful things that are important to you about why this needs to happen. And again you know, there might be someone who might say “Oh you shouldn’t be doing that for a man”. And I was like “it’s for love”. You know. I love him and he loves me and we’re still together today but it was a great motivator for me to make sure that my whole life worked synergistically. Not that I was building this business that would somehow conflict with my own personal desires to travel and to be able to be at different places. And also, there was something in me that just pushed against this idea of having the overhead of a traditional business. You know, my dad was a small business owner. And I remember being a little girl and going to the shop with him over the weekends. And there would be a big job and he’s on a deadline and we would all come together as a family to get that job done. Did you know what we had to do to make sure my dad could meet his deadline and take care of his customers. But I just remember overhearing talks of my parents on the rent of the building, and all those stuff, you know these messages stick with you when you were a kid. And so when I was building my business I said, You know, we are in this new age. Why not make it lean? Why not make it where, also I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who didn’t necessarily like getting up at the crack of dawn and putting on pantyhose and just an outfit that I didn’t want to wear to go to an office and like kind of sit there all day and then trudge home. It just felt like, I don’t know there must be a better way. So those were some of the lessons in the kind of trajectory of how I got from this idea of building a virtual company to then taking the steps to start to bring it to life.

Jairek: Interesting. So in those pieces, it’s really interesting because I agree with you tenfold. I had this weird feeling of watching stuff where family members own different types of companies and do different types of jobs. And I remember one time I’m hearing one of my family members optimizing their business and they found out they had a $10,000 a month light bill at one of their offices. I remember scratching my head, being like… at the moment I was still working and trying to make 10 grand a month, much less like the light bill! Holy moses! Like how in the world is that adding up? And I remember just having my nervous system freak out and then sitting down and looking around and being like wait a minute, I remember when I first started my overhead was the rent of a front den of a room which ain’t sexy at all, car payment, insurance, and food. I think it was like under 2 grand in a month. I was like comparing and contrasting and I was saying like if I had to do it in that old brick and mortar kind of way, it would take me year to dig out their initial loan and the debt and everything that you had to pile up just to have the opportunity to chase your own dream. And ever since before we started, like thanks to the internet. Nowadays, the risk is very low comparably. You don’t have to go take out $50,000 loan, to open your location, to build it up properly, to put up your sign, to hire your first employees and hope someone shows up. If you do it right, you can staff up for very little and have the ability to almost instantaneously deliver your service to the world at a high quality way. And make a ridiculously living in the process of it, which was pretty cool.

Marie: It’s unprecedented. I mean we’ve never had this opportunity as humans quite ever. And I just think it’s exciting and I think the flipside of it too is I think a lot of people, especially creatives and big-hearted creatives, care so much. I think the difference, and Jairek I don’t know if you agree with this you know when you and I started back in the day, there’s also much less kind of noise. You know and it was a little bit simpler. You know when I first got online there was no social media, right? This would not have happened, you and I, we couldn’t be doing video talk and chat and recording a show just on a laptop. It just wasn’t quite there yet. So I think the enormous opportunity is there, but I also think one of the kind of new challenges is that people are feeling overwhelmed. It’s like my goodness now I have so many choices, what do I do?

Jairek: It’s true. Now I’ll get a little granular for our specific core audience which tends to be coaches. And it’s really interesting because right now I’m friends with a handful of people who do awesome marketing. And what’s really interesting is a lot of them have targeted and reached out to specific coaches. And they’re targeting them with these programs. The thing that I’ve learned the most though, and what I give huge props to you for, is a lot of them will throw stuff at people and say basically buy the program, I’ll send you the box and good luck. And it puts them in a position where, like you said, big-hearted individuals who are in a helping profession who want to help make a difference in the world get this giant box of awesomeness, they flip it open, and they don’t know where to start. They don’t know how to begin. They don’t know where to apply it. They don’t know what steps to take first. And it turns into an awesome form of shelf help, which is another thing on the shelf they’ll never use. Hate to say it, but it’s true. Helps the shelf, makes it look good on the house, but it won’t do beans on their actual business. And for a while, I kept getting phone calls from people in that exact position, asking me like “Hey you’ve done it as a coach, can you teach me how to do it?” And I remember the first probably 3 or 4, I tried to teach how to do it and I just realized like “Hey for the amount of money you’re spending trying to hire me to teach you this stuff, it’s a bad investment in me because I’m expensive to trade that amount of money for that knowledge.” And I was like, you know what, and this is originally part of the way that I found you besides me taking the course myself, is I combed through the internet. And I said who is absolutely freaking legit beyond all that matter. Like who could really come through: they’ve done their stuff, they’ve done the work, they have proven examples, they’ve actually done it themselves, they walk talk eat sleep relive the message they’re bringing on the world really truly that we could go through their course even at a, you know, good momentum but not-crushing-it-yet-business and see our business grow, which it did so thank you for that. But also who do we trust our best friends and family with that if we can send them to somebody, it would be the best place to go and to be honest you’re the person we found. It took us a while and I’ve lots of other friends in this space who I know will go poke their head in and will learn what they black-hat-crazy marketing tactics. And I always leave the room being like “Can we get beaten up for doing that? I’m not quite sure”. Look I know these guys say it works but I’m pretty sure I might get punched if I try that. And then I always get back to you and I’m like “Hey”. I literally have sent my mom to come check out your program and go through it because she wanted to grow her business of how to sell leashes for dogs online that she makes by hand and I’m like “Hey go to Marie. I trust her, it’s a great investment. It is the perfect place to start.” And one of the most beautiful thing is every single step of the journey, you show them what to do. You help them do it. You have office hours set up to support them in the process. Like it’s an amazing thing. So mad props to you and sorry for the little spiel on the side there but I decided to tell people about that who are listening because I think it’s necessary or needed for them to understand that A. You’re the real deal, and B. You know, we send family and friends to you all the freaking time because it’s probably the best ROI they’re going to get as far as an investment in this specific topic. And also the best support they’re going to get in how to actually go through the process and not just get handed a box and told good luck.

Marie: Jairek, I really think you’re like going to make me cry. It’s a weep-for-heart-and-soul for those listening. Before you and I were recording, we were talking a little bit about what’s new. I was actually on a sat channel with our team and we’re proofing some things like we need updates to the program virtually every year! Like a year never goes by that we don’t not only take the feedback from our members but we take our learnings, what’s happening in our business, and what we’re seeing out in the landscape and go “Ok, where are the components of these school? Like these are timeless. Those need to stay. That punchy – that needs to go updated. This module, we need to reshoot this, let’s re-trigger that”. So that every single year, we’re giving our students and all of our grads who come and retake it each year for free, the best of the best so that they’re revisiting and answering the fundamentals. And also they’re aware of what’s new and what’s valuable to pay attention to. But like you know you said something really important, Jairek. We don’t teach anything that is black hat. That’s not even where we go. And you know something else? I want to say this because one of the things we’ve done this year is, just in our own kind of marketing, we took uhm… you know B-Schools has been around since 2010. We have over 30,000 graduates from over 160 industries and 119 countries. So it’s impacted a diverse, broad range of creative entrepreneurs all around the world. And so we took all of our stories and we started streamlining everything. And one of the things people ask is you know there’s so much free information out there online on how to build a business, and one of my favorite testimonials is actually “You know what Marie told me? She said, you know, she told me that I can absolutely go out there and probably find, if I looked hard enough, every single ideas. Somewhere out there on the internet for free. But I don’t want to do that! I don’t want to spend my time going to sift and sort and figuring out who I can trust and who I can’t trust. Is that a clear instruction? Is that an outdated instruction? Marie put it together where it’s concise, it’s understandable. I have people I can talk with. I have people I can have conversations with. They can answer questions. And I know what I’m doing is going to work”. And that for me was a really important thing because we’re in this age, Jairek. And everyone on this show who’s listening right now knows this, there’s more information available than ever before. There’s a great quote by E.O. Wilson that’s like, “We’re drowning in information but we’re starving for wisdom”. And what we really strive to do in B-School is concise down and really hone in on what’s the wisdom that you need at this stage. What are the very few things that you need to do consistently to start getting traction so that your business can start to grow. And then once you drop to the races, man go for it! We’ll always here, we got your back. You can come back and revisit and refresh the fundamentals each year. We’re not here to like say we have the secret sauce. We’re here to get people in action, to teach them how to be discerning, and to teach them how to be strong entrepreneurs to make really smart decisions, to focus, to execute consistently, and to do it with a sense of integrity and values. Because they’ll encounter those kind of offers out there in the market. And the shiny, silver objects that are saying you know make $10,000 overnight! It’s like, I want to teach my people to be wiser than that. I want to teach them really how to build something sustainable, something they can be proud of, and something that’s going to support their families financially now and for the rest of their life.

Jairek: Absolutely! I love that. It’s what’s needed. You need to build the right foundation which B-School offers the ability to do that. You need to be able to platform that year after year after year and continue to grow and build the momentum necessary to get the lasting results you want, not just a quick hit and then “oh shoot, now what do we have to switch our business to tomorrow to now make a buck”. And then “oh shoot, now we’re going to change it again”.

Marie: yes.

Jairek: I always scratch my head when the same person has done 12 different things in 2 years. Nothing wrong. Maybe they’re serial entrepreneurs and had lots of passions. Or, it’s interesting… but like you said, this is the 17th year of being online?

Marie: Yes, 17 years of being online. Since like 2000, 2001 and since 2010. 2010 was the first year that B-School was in existence. And you know we have our free video series that’s up right now. I was having so much fun interacting with people in the comments. And I was actually so psyched to see so many of our grads actually back in our launch series. It’s like, “Oh my god Marie, I’m in B-School and I just learned this from this free video”. And I’m like these are my people, folks like us like you and I who always come with beginners in mind. Who say I want to take a look at this with fresh eyes, what are the fundamentals that really move the needle in business? And you and I both know this, consistency, knowing exactly who your market is, being able to connect with them on an emotional level and have them understand that you have their best interests in heart and not have that lip service. Have that become completely connected and integral and aligned at every sense of your communication, your website, your offerings, how you create your customer experience. And those are all the things that I think build a lasting business. And those are all the things that we teach you how to do in B-School. So as the school change and as the technology changes, and fun things come on the market and come off the market, that’s fine. You’ll always be able to learn those things on your own. But if we can teach you those core fundamentals that never change, you’ll be able to master any new things that come on the market because your message is right, your alignment is right, you have your priorities straight.

Jairek: Speaking of that free series that that’s going to be out right now, what are some things they can expect to learn from those videos? Because I know they’re always awesome, every year they get better. And it’s a great work, team and you for doing that. What are some key things they might pick up from that series and we’ll make sure we’ll put a link below the video or next to the video somewhere so watch for that link. And when we send you over to it, what can they pick up from that?

Marie: Sure. So it’s a 3-video series. In the first video, what we do is we lay out the 6 pillars to building an online business. What I’ve seen and what I’ve noticed just anecdotally and interacting with our Marie TV viewers and also our B-Schoolers. A lot of folks, especially when they’re just getting started, you start hearing what they want to do. Everything can feel so overwhelming. And it can feel like they don’t have nearly enough time in the day to do all the things they need to do, to wear all the different hats from social media to content creation to you know actually working with your clients, setting up the website, how do you manage your editorial… like it just feels just like your dying under this tidal wave, a tsunami of “I can never make all these happen”. So in that first video with the 6 pillars, we just lay out what you need to focus on first, and second, and third, and fourth to really give people a framework and a roadmap. So they can clear away some of that overwhelm and go “Ahh I got this piece handled. But you know what? This piece? That’s where I really need to focus my time and energy”. And then you kind of build on it. They’re all integrated but I find that base on the feedback that we’re getting, people were like “Thank you for simplifying it. Thank you for not making me feel crazy. Thank you for giving me a kind of framework that helps me feel like I can actually do this”. So that’s video 1. Video 2, we really start to get into poking at some of the mistaken and frankly deadly notions that people have about sales and marketing. One of the things that I’ve discovered, and rightfully so, many people especially big-hearted creatives and coaches and folks in the helping profession, they have a negative association when it comes to sales and marketing. They almost want someone else to do that for them. They want to find a business manager, or an operations person, or just a partner – someone to just take that off their plate so they can do what they really love which is help people. Now unfortunately, that’s not going to make your business work. And 9 times out of 10, it’ll actually kill your business. So what we do in that video, I want people to get that even though there’s been knuckleheads in the past and there’s kind of old school techniques with sales and marketing and that they had given it a bad name for good reason, there’s a new style of marketing called motor marketing that actually brings out the best in your humanity not the worst. And it’s a complete paradigm shift. And when small business owners and creatives and coaches really get this paradigm shift, Jairek, it changes everything. Because it goes from something that they resist or that they want to ignore or not want to do, to something that they’re pouring their creative energy into. It becomes a vehicle of service and then they get excited to do it. When they get excited to do it, they actually do it. They do it consistently. It’s way more effective. And we’re like, “Yey! Your business is working now!” So that’s video 2. That’s one of the most important. And then in video 3 we do two things. We really tackle some of the common excuses I think that can hold us back, myself included, whenever we’re looking at our next level of growth. So we hit them down one by one so people can really do self diagnostic. You know, am I using this as an excuse to just keep myself small? Or is it you know a legitimate reason I have to say no and I’m just going to stay in my place. So we’ve kind of taken a look at each one of the 7 common excuse that hold people back. And then on the second half of the video, we get to meet some B-Schoolers from very diverse backgrounds. You know, people that are coming from different countries that have completely different business models that are coming with different sets of resources both financial, emotional, mental, different age ranges. And really here, from that very experience, I want to say Jairek, not everyone that you’re going to hear from has specific million-dollar business. Some of them are still riding that beginning stage. But you know what? They’re not sitting on a sideline any longer. They’re not victimizing themselves, saying “Gosh, I don’t know how I’m going to make this work”. They’re in the process of building something that they love. And they’re finally using their gifts in a way that makes sense and they’re seeing results. You know again, it may not be those multi-million dollar stories. Those are happening, we have those results and those are great. God bless, they’re wonderful! But you know what’s also awesome? Taking someone who was terrified and scared and didn’t believe in themselves, and seeing themselves do it and working with their clients and getting the profit coming in for the first time in their lives. To me, it’s amazing. So that’s a little bit of a preview of what you’re getting from the series.

Jairek: Very cool, I love that! I’m excited to check it out again as always. I’m always excited to see what you’re all up to and how it rolls out each year. It’s very fun to watch and be a part of. I’m always taking notes too. So now I would love to kind of wrap this up with a fire round of interesting questions about Marie and B-School and what you’ve learned along your journey.

Marie: yes.

Jairek: Number one, the funniest moment that has happened over the years specifically in B-School?

Marie: Ok, so uhm we do this office hours call which you have mentioned before just where I just hop on the phone and I talk to as many B-Schoolers as I can. It’s a big group line, it’s really fun. And we tackle the questions and concerns and we get into it. So a few years back, I was doing an office hours call, and I was in New York City at the time, and it was pretty hot. And the air conditioner just wasn’t working and it’s just like one of those days. And I was like alright this is just what it’s going to be. It’s hot, I had an event that I had to go to later, but I have this office hours call. So hanging out, doing office hours call, again telling you that it’s quite hot in New York, like really hot. And I’m a girl with a lot of hair so I had my hair up in a bun. And I don’t know where, the doorbell rang. And I’m like “Oh my God, I’ve thousands of people on the line, my dog Kumo is going to start barking”. And I was like, I told everyone “guys I didn’t expect to leave but I just have to go get it. I don’t have a doorman in my building”. Well everyone is cool, Luis on my team came on the line and said “hey everyone I’m going to talk to you for a minute”. And I go over to open the door and it’s the FedEx man and I completely forgot I didn’t have a shirt on. I have a bra on but I just open the door with like thousands of people online with my bra and sweating like “Give me the package!” And I just shut the door. He didn’t get too much of a show, it was nothing more than me being in a bikini but I remember coming back on the line and like “you guys are not going to believe what just happened”. I was so into my coaching call I just completely forgot that you know to not sweat my face off, I had taken off my shirt”. So there you go. It happens.

Jairek: I’m sure the FedEx route is gunning for more new packages on that route specifically in this summer. Let’s see. My second question is what, and this one’s going to be a little bit hard because there’s two part to this question, but what has been the most heartfelt moment for you out of all the years at B-School so far? Just something that warmed your heart, maybe put a tear in your eye. Something that you sat back and like “Wow, like if that’s the only thing that happened, that was just the coolest thing ever”?

Marie: Yeah, I definitely have it for you. I don’t know why this story just sticks with me over and over again. But it’s something that happened. A dear friend of mine - Kris Carr actually, she’s one of my best friends – she was launching her book in New York City and I was like co-hosting that book launch with her, for her. And we’re kind of in the area where it was a reception and she was signing books and I was just meeting people and saying hi. And this lovely woman came up to me and she just gave me a hug and she started crying. And she’s like, “Marie, I’m a B-Schooler” and she has a little bit of an accent. She’s from Amsterdam, sorry not really good, sometimes I’m getting that sense but I’m not good at that one. So I won’t even pretend. She was crying and she was giving me this hug and she’s like “I have to tell you that what you’ve created in B-School is beyond what you could ever imagine”. I was like thank you, like who are you, what’s going on. And she’s like “I need to tell you my story. I was a successful TV host in the Netherlands. And I just keep feeling the sense of like I want to do something else, I want to help people. But I didn’t know where to start my own business. I’d only been successful in this TV station but I didn’t know what else to do. I stumbled across your videos and I wound up signing up for B-School. Within a year, I was able to translate all of my journalistic skills and what she did as a TV host into this new business”. So her business became profitable and she was doing great. And then her dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. And what happened was because her business was profitable and because she had this flexibility, the doctors basically gave him 3 months to live, she was able to move her dad into her house while she’s still running her business and she was able to take care of her dad for the last months of his life. And she told me that her dad actually died in her arms. And it was like, she said “That never could have happened if I didn’t find you and if I didn’t sign up for your program. And it will never leave me for the rest of my life that I had that time with my dad”. And I was, I couldn’t even you know, I can’t even handle it now. So she just went on to tell me that they had a B-Schooler community, there’s B-Schooler communities all over the world. So she said there’s a wonderful group of B-Schoolers right in Amsterdam and they all kind of rallied around her at her time in need. And again, all of these happened Jairek that I don’t even know anything about. And this was like months and months later and she decided to jump on a plane. She said “I love Kris but I don’t really know her that well. I just knew you were here. And I felt like I had to thank you in person because it was the biggest gift of my life”. So that’s my favorite.

Jairek: What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful gift to be able to give someone that moment, especially to someone with their father going through this and being there for him which is such a blessing.

Marie: Yeah. And I think that’s what’s kind of always hits me about this. I think you know, and for everyone listening too, we just don’t know what’s coming around the corner right? None of us know. That’s the beauty of life. That’s the adventure of life. That’s the uncertainty. But it’s also the reality. And I feel like taking a stand for what you believe in and starting to brick by brick build that life and work towards that vision is so worthy. You know when I look back 17 years ago, I am so grateful that I had the audacity and the courage and a bit of nerve to just like go out there and like say F it, I’m going to do it. And I’m going to try and I might stumble because you get to a certain point in your life and you look back and my goodness, those few decisions I made back there, they changed everything. And so yeah we just never know what’s coming down the pike and I think from the fulfillment that comes, from expressing your gifts, from being brave enough to try something that you believe in, to the very real and practical implications of having freedom and even a little bit of resources or time or ability to be with people you love when they need you. There’s no price tag you can put on that.

Jairek: That’s true. It’s so very true. And you’re right, it’s the greatest gift you can have in the world - the freedom and flexibility to be there with the people that matter most to you in the moments they need you most. To be respectful of your time, the final thing I want to wrap up with is just if someone was literally on the edge of their seat, they have their dream, they know what they want to do, or they’ve known what they want to do for a long time, and they’re literally trying to figure out like what are the first let’s say 3-5 things that they need to do either mentally, emotionally, physically, online, offline – like where is the best 3-points starting point that if we are to give them those 3-5 tips right now, just rock solid like here’s step by step by step of what you need to do, what would we leave them with on that? That way, it’s very actionable, it’s very specific.

Marie: So I would say know your dream. If you know it, you got to write it down and you got to be so specific and clear about it. It’s one thing to have it in your mind and I think it’s awesome, visualization is fantastic, something we should practice. But I also believe that there is an incredible, transformative, magic if you will when you write things down on paper. Not even type them in the computer. I mean write them down by hand. And look at that every single day. We have so many distractions that are possible in our world between our phones and the media and newspaper and everything that’s happening. If we focus ourselves on the clarity of what we want and that vision and why it’s so important to us and you do it every day – when you wake up in the morning, whenever you’re taking a break from lunch, before you go to bed for dinner – you are going to train your brain literally to the reticular activating system. To start scanning your environment, to find the exact article, the person, to take the action needed to start bringing that vision to life. So I’d say that’s definitely tip #1. Tip #2 is one of my favorites you know. If it’s not scheduled, it’s not real. So you’ve got to take some action every single day to make that vision come to life. It doesn’t have to be huge or gargantuan, everyone has different levels of responsibility in terms of full time jobs or families. But everybody can carve out some time to take at least one action to start making it real during the day. And you know this Jairek, I mean we all know this intrinsically, if you take action every day you start to create momentum. And when you start to create momentum, you start to feel the thing coming to life. And the emotion of you seeing and feeling it coming to life almost creates this vacuum that pulls you ahead. It is magnetic and unstoppable. But it starts with that daily action. You have to do it every day no matter what. And I would say the third thing to do is reach out for help from someone. You know if there is an uncle or a brother or a sister or a friend or a colleague or anyone who you feel is someone of a kindred spirit. Anybody! Even it could be like finding a podcast or a show like this. Some voice that you can connect with for help every single day. And when I say help, it’s just more it’s inspiration, it’s connection. I feel like we human beings, if we stay by ourselves for too long and we just work on something by ourselves for too long and we don’t connect with others, it starts to die. We start to get into a place of self doubt or just “hmm this isn’t going to work. No one cares. I should just go and watch TV”. But when you have that other person chirping in your ear, that other person to connect with, I feel like that connection and community really does help bring things to life. So those are the 3 things: the vision, the daily action, and some form of human connection.

Jairek: I love it. We’re going to do something fun for everyone tuning in. since you stood to watch all the way to this point. In the comments section, and we’re going to air this in a bunch of different places, so if you’re watching on Facebook, YouTube or anywhere else that you’re seeing this. In the comments section, if you actually go and do those 3 steps for us and actually write down here’s exactly what my vision is, here’s exactly my action I’m going to commit to, here’s my schedule that I’m actually going to do, and here’s who or what I’m going to connect with every single day in order to do that, we’re going to send you a surprise special box of awesomeness which includes some awesome books that might not be released yet from certain people around the world. It might be signed by certain people that you might be interested in that might have some other awesome bonuses in. I can’t tell you exactly what comes in this box. I’m just telling you it’s special, it is valuable, and you will find nothing else like it. It might even have a handmade journal that’s almost impossible to find with a very unique pen that comes with it. I’m just saying that if you stood this long and you got all these awesomeness which we want to thank Marie for, and you’re willing to take action to do that. The only other thing I want you to write in the comments section in order to qualify – what we’re going to do is we’ll comb through and we’ll send out two, we’re going to pick 2 different people who’ll win this box. And what I want you to also write in the comments section is what is your business, what is the dream you have for your business, and what commitment you’re making right now to actually make that dream a reality. And I want to know because I want to be able to, Marie and I, will be able to scan through and read and figure out what your business is, what your dream is, and what you’re trying to make happen. And hopefully we might be able to chime in and support you and give you a couple of tips or insights of how to make that happen if you’re watching and tuning in. Ms Marie, thank you, thank you as always for joining us here on JRCTV and Facebook live and twitter and everywhere else that everyone is going to join us and check this out. We always appreciate your time and all the amazing things that you’re putting in the world. If you leave everyone with one last thought, what would it be?

Marie: My life mantra – everything is figure-outable. If there is anything in this world that you want to experience or create or achieve or make happen then you have it within you to figure it out. Whether you go out on the internet and start researching, you reach out to someone, you ask for help, you pray, you meditate – whatever works for you. You find a way. It is figure-outable.

Jairek: I love that, it’s one of my favorites. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I’ll see everyone here next week for another amazing episode. And make sure to mention in the comments the answer to all those awesome questions so that you qualify to win that awesome surprise box.

Marie: Bye everyone, thank you!

Jairek: Hey everyone, this is going to sound crazy but it totally slipped my mind that we forgot to tell you about the newest, most amazing addition that have been added to B-School this year that are literally out of this world. I’m going to shut up and let Marie take over. Because these things literally, if you let me talk about it, I don’t think I’d be able to shut up about it. Literally! So take it from here and tell them what is the new awesomeness that’s been added because it’s pretty freaking amazing.

Marie: Yes, so for B-School to share again, we improve the program each and every year. We have more dedicated mentor-coaches than ever. What that means is you’ll have more support. People guiding you, actually showing you how to implement everything we teach from programming and tech, to web design, to e-commerce, if you ever want to do products or someone you know wants to have a product-based business, to copywriting, to life coaching itself, and to just general small business help. So there will be so much professional support inside the program, helping you really understand the strategies, how do they apply to your specific business. That’s one amazing improvement. We’re so excited about it. The second thing is we have a program that’s included in B-School that helps us tackle one of the biggest obstacles we all face which is overwhelmed and not being able to finish what we started. This program is called the Follow Through formula. It has been revamped and remade and when I shared it to my team, they’re like “Marie this is a whole lot of program”. And I’m like, “Yeah I know, that’s why we did it. Because we want to help people get stuff done and that’s how all the magic happens”. So you get that the moment that you register. In addition, there’s another program that we completely revamped that is bigger and better and more actionable than ever, it’s called Start the Right Business. So if you or anyone you know is in a position where like “you know what, I think I know what I want to do but I’m not really sure if my business idea is the right one”. Or “I have too many business ideas, how do I choose the right one”? Or “I have an idea but it’s unproven”. Start the Right Business really walks you through what you need to know, what you need to do and understand in order to get clear so then you can execute all the stuff that we teach you in B-School. Again, it’s a really robust program completely remade top to bottom. That’s included and you get it the moment that you come in. and then, this was the thing that people have been requesting for a while, you know at B-School like anything that’s valuable is an investment. And we heard from a lot of our students and a lot of our potential students that they wanted a more extended payment plan. So that we have that for you this year. So if you can pay in full, fabulous. But if you can’t then it’s not a problem because we have a payment plan that is 12 monthly payments of $199 which make it very accessible if you’re really serious about investing in your business so that you can have your casual be in place and you could take care of your education at the same time. And there’s more but those are kind of the top line items of what’s really new and really awesome at B-School this year.

Jairek: That’s amazing. I mean the copywriting – just to go through a couple that stood up to me, the ones that I’m most excited about. The copywriting is ridiculous! I happened to be subscribed in a couple of side bonus where you give us little hints and surprises and show us what it’s all about. Amazing! In my experience of going around my business, I’ll tell you learning how to do copywriting, understanding the principles behind it, is a game changer to expand what it is you’re doing. Without it, you can survive. With it, you can thrive at levels that are just ridiculous. Really truly, I’ve had the opportunity to work business of all sizes. You know we have friends and people we’ve worked with who’ve gone out and raised their $200 million bucks to open their start up. And what’s wild is, you see all the infrastructure and the buildings and the teams and all those other jazz and it comes back to like, they call me and say “hey, who do you know who can actually do the copywriting for our website or our letter and all these stuff?” I’m like “you all know how to raise $200 million bucks and you’re trying to figure out how to write a freaking newsletter?” And they’re like “yeah, do you know anybody? Like I just keep writing it and it doesn’t sound right”. And we laugh because it’s literally a game changer of all scale-sizable businesses. And it’s a skill set that not only if you can learn how to apply it in your own business, but something that also becomes a tangible skill set and a life skill that’s valuable everywhere else including, if you ever want to work with one of those $200 million business and show them the works of your magic sauce that you can learn on this awesome bonus.

Marie: Yeah, it’s like having… so what we do have is like copywriting coaches working alongside you in the program and there’s 2 of them and they’re both excellent. Like to be able to take a look at your headline or what’s on your website and say “Hmmm you might want to try this”. It’s a game changer.

Jairek: And PS, for that to be included, to me is insane. I got so freaking excited about hearing that. Because literally, I remember when we were trying to figure out how to update our copy and reaching out to some of those pros and having people hit me back and say “hey, I’d be happy to write a letter for you, it’d cost you $50,000”. And me being like, “What?? You’re going to write a letter? $50,000??” And there’d be like “yeah, it’s what it’s worth”. And me be like “Ok, let me try someone else. Maybe this person’s literally crazy”. And I go to the next person and they’d be like “Ahhmm, we’d cut you a deal. We’d do it for like $35,000”. And I was just like “for one freaking letter?? Like what do you guys have in your pen??” But what’s wild is, being in that side community, watching you’re sharing and watching the inside, watching the difference it can make for your business. You’ll see the value and you immediately go “holy smokes”. That one letter, that one email you can write, that one way you can rephrase a page literally will be the difference in barely making it versus absolutely crushing it. And for you guys to include that is amazing. And I can’t believe I almost forgot to talk about that. So thank you for popping back on and telling about those. For everyone who’s interested, make sure to go over and check it out. If you want to google B-School. What do they google, Marie Forleo B-School?

Marie: Yeah, Marie Forleo B-School. I’m sure you’ll probably put links in here for them. And you can just direct them to the free series. We got everything out online. And you know we’re very transparent. It’s like here’s what you’re looking for, here’s what we’re offering. If it sounds good, come join us. If it doesn’t, we love you and you know awesome we wish you the best. So thanks Jairek.

Jairek: Absolutely. Side caveat, and I forgot to include this last time, we got lots of emails all year long is this is only open for a very short period of time each year.

Marie: Yes. In the past 7 years, we’ve only opened once per year. Because we pour so much of ourselves into in, like the entire team, we pour everything we have into making sure our students have the best experience. So the window of time is now. And I think the most important thing to remember is once you’re a B-Schooler, you’re a B-Schooler for life. So we have loads of students that come back every year. You know they go as far as they can and they start to get some success and they’re like “alright, I’m going to pause on this and keep building my business”. And then they come back the next year and they can do it for free. So once you’re a B-Schooler, you’re a B-Schooler for life and every upgrade we make to the program, any improvements we make to the program, you get included on that at no charge.

Jairek: That’s awesome. So for those of you who are watching this right now and you just saw this video being sent out or posted online, go immediately and check that out because you’re not going to want to miss it and it will be gone within I think a few weeks or a month. So you absolutely want to get there as fast as possible. Now for those of you who just get a little side note and you catch this 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 12 months after the original posting date, do not worry. You don’t have to freak out. But we will give you an update when it will open again. And make sure you act fast and act quickly to get there. Otherwise it will be gone and you’ll have to wait an entire 12-month calendar cycle before you get any of this awesomeness again. So please go there quickly and check this out. I had a few people last year who watched it. Literally 4 days after, everything was closed. They’re like “did I miss it?” And I said yes. And they’re like “Nooooo!!” So don’t be one of those people who emails us like “please can you call Marie and ask her if she can just send me that video again? It was so good and it’s gone!” Go there and freaking take notes like crazy and do everything that it says. So it’s amazing and it’s awesome and I don’t want you to miss it. And if you do miss it, yes you can opt in and recite and get a year’s full of awesomeness to wait next year but I highly recommend you do it now because here’s what’s crazy: if you have a business and you have an idea, why wait 12 more months to actually get it to actualize everything you imagined it can be. Don’t wait. The world needs it, the world wants it. And Marie can show you how to help get it to them in a classy, strong, powerful and unique way. So please go there, check it out and thank you again for this little side clip we forgot to tell them. So have a great day everyone and continue home.